Smoke and Fire
by Turtlelove2
Summary: For the first time, a group of friends has defeated the Queen of the Nether. While they were there however, they met a girl who was kidnapped by the queen and has been living in the Nether for years, but no one knows why. Rated T for possible content later on.


I don't remember my life before this except for the occasional fleeting memory. I would assume them to be dreams at this point though. Now my world is fire and brimstone, lava and netherrack; always burning. There's no sun or moon so the only light is from the flickering of the fires. There's no plants except for the occasional mushroom or netherwart. The only colors are red, orange, and yellow. Outside anyways. I've never seen the inside of the palace, but I would assume it to be lavishly furnished with the most expensive materials money can buy. I bet the food is the kind you get from a professional chef, the kind that's so rich that one serving is three times smaller than normal. And the clothes, they would be amazing. The most exquisite dresses, blouses, skirts, and shoes ever made. All hand-crafted and ridiculously priced but she can afford it. She is queen after all.

I tend to daydream about what the palace might hold. It gives me something to do in the endless hours between sleep and punishment. All I know is my cage. I can't escape. It's locked from the outside and sits above one of the largest pools of lava Hell has to offer. Yes, Hell. My name is Kathrine Alexandria Sophia and I live in Hell.

I'm not dead; I'm sure of that. The dead can't feel pain and even though I put up with a lot, I can still feel it. I don't think the dead can bleed either, which I do a lot of sometimes. And I doubt they need food and water and a change of clothes every once in a while. I need all of these things so I'm pretty sure I'm still alive. She doesn't want me to be though.

The Queen of Hell herself, Azalea, is the one holding me here. She's in charge of punishment. That means the only time I see her, is when she's come to torture me. I think she gets bored in her castle sometimes or just takes joy in it, but either way, seeing her is bad news. She has servants that are in charge of making sure I don't die of starvation or dehydration or something stupid like that. I'm sure that when I die, it will be because she has finally made me give up on life. It will be because I beg her to and she'll get to torture me slowly one last time before finally killing me.

I see travelers sometimes. Others from the overworld that come to challenge her. I like seeing them when they come, but they don't ever leave. They die before they even get to her. She guards herself with a well trained army of strange men I can only describe as being some sort of human-animal cross gone wrong. Half of their faces are decayed as well as parts of their arms, legs and torsos. They're awful, horrible creatures and every time a traveler comes, I have to turn away.

Right now, I'm sitting in the cage trying to picture the inside of the palace as Azalea comes into view on the walkway to my prison. I immediately curl myself into the tightest ball I can and huddle in one of the four corners. It isn't long until I hear the familiar beep of the lock unlocking and the grating sound of metal on metal as my door slides open.

She walks in slowly, relishing no doubt, the expression on my face that only registers as a cold fear. I have no way of knowing what I'm in for, but the look on her face suggests pain; lots of it.

She walks over to me, standing in front of my huddled form and, to my surprise, offers her hand to help me up.

I stare at it for a moment, wondering why she would do this. She's never nice to me. After my brief hesitation, I decide to take it. I don't want to anger her by not complying. As soon as I'm standing she lets go of my hand so quickly it's as though she's touched something foul.

"Hello, Katherine." She speaks my name like a curse.

I'm not quite sure why but I respond, "Azalea."

_Slap! _I recoil, holding my now stinging cheek in my hands as she screams at me. "How dare you! How dare you call me by name."

I choke out an apology, which earns me another slap. Both of my cheeks are red hot with pain as I lean back into the corner of the cage. To my horror, I see she has her hands balled into fists, and she proceeds to punch me in the stomach. I sink to my knees in pain my hands not knowing what to hold anymore.

"Get up!" She barks out as an order.

I stand and she punches me again. This time harder. The punch sends me to the floor again as my hands hold my now bruised ribs. She yells for me to stand again and I do, with much effort. I always do what she tells me during this because I found out quickly that if I don't she stays twice as long.

Down the fist comes again this time with enough force to push me into the corner. I hit the bars behind me with a clang. This time I turn my back to her as I fall. I can't take another hit to the stomach.

She's obviously not done yet though because she grabs me by my hair, yanking me up. I cry out as every follicle in my head screams with pain. She laughs a horrible laugh and begins to hit me. Over and over holding my hair so I can't fall. She hits my sides bruising my already bruised ribs pulling hair out with every hit.

When she finishes, she lets go of my hair, letting me fall to the ground. I won't cry. I refuse to cry in front of her, as I have learned to do after all of the time I've spent here. I keep my arms around my stomach, hands clutching my sides.

That's when I hear the sound, like the rumble of thunder, that means a traveler has arrived.

She turns to the outside of the cage and sighs, looking back at me she gets down until her nose is inches from mine and says, "You should have died long ago." Then she leaves. I'm dimly aware of the pat of her shoes against the walkway over the sound of my sobs.

I eventually make my way over to the other side of the cage so I can see the travelers. They've come in a group with armor unlike any I've seen before. This armor appears to have an almost pink glow to it and the weapons give off the same light.

I see the army begin to come out of the palace and am sure they are done for when I see something that I will never forget.

The travelers walk right past them. They walk right past the awful decaying men without touching them, without fighting them at all! They make it to the palace and just walk in. That's it. The guards have made no move to stop them and don't look like they will any time soon.

There's a teleporter on the roof of my cage. It always has been but it's never used. It's supposed to transport me directly to a similar cage in the palace. I don't know why, but it receives power for the first time ever, and I'm sitting in a cage in the palace.

It's more amazing than I could have ever even imagined. Teal and dark green tapestries hang from the ceiling all the way to the floor, elegantly embroidered with gold. The floor is a clean, crisp quartz as well as the walls. Which is strange since from the outside it appeared to be a dark red that's almost purple. The whole thing is lit with glowstone and the door appears to be made of wood, which must be enchanted so it doesn't burn.

The travelers walk in and are just as awestruck as I am by the beauty of the room. I hadn't realized until now that I had stood up at some point while admiring the room. Now the strangers have caught sight of me and are running over talking to each other and then to me.

"Who are you? Why is she keeping you here?"

"It's okay. We'll get you out."

"Do we have any extra food?"

"Can you crack this lock?"

"I wonder if we can just break the cage..."

"No you might hurt her!"

"What if she's locked in here for a reason? Should we really let her out?"

"Of course we should! She's obviously a prisoner."

I have no idea what to say during all of this because they're all talking at once and no one has noticed the queen returning with one of the most powerful swords I've seen.

I find my voice and half shout, half shriek. "Look out!"

They all whip around at once, pulling out their own swords. She laughs, the very same laugh I hear when she hits me. The very same smile.

They don't seem fazed at all as they lunge at her. Each one barking orders at another. Some of it I can make sense of, some of it I can't. She dodges everything they throw at her. She dodges blade after blade, almost like she's bored. The strangers keep fighting. They utter a swear word here or there. At one point, metal on metal is all I hear. It's as if the rest of the world has gone silent, holding its breath like I am to see who makes the first mistake. No one has ever come far enough to challenge her and now, I find myself hoping. Hoping and praying that the first mistake won't be theirs.

They keep fighting, keep dodging. She keeps fighting, keeps dodging. Until she doesn't. Until she get hit.

I almost smile, almost laugh. I want to stand in the cage and celebrate. They could win!

The wound isn't anything fatal though. Just a cut on her arm. They fight for a while longer, she gets a little more serious. Another hit. This one to her leg. She doesn't fall, but she makes a face, holding her jaw in a way I know all too well. She's trying to keep from crying out.

They fight a while more. She's much more serious now, not taking any chances. Another blow, this time to her other arm. Then one of them gets behind her long enough to knock her off balance. She turns as she falls, taking a swipe at the guy behind her which he easily avoids. I've noticed throughout the battle that anytime one of them gets hurt, another will throw a bottle with a pinkish liquid at him and it shatters, healing the wound. The queen has noticed too, but when she tried to get in the way of one hoping it would heal her, it had the exact opposite effect.

Now she's on the ground in a hopeless, bleeding fight is clearly over and the boy that I've pegged as being the leader walks over and kicks the sword out of her hand. She winces as his boot hits her fingers, letting go of the sword. I've never seen her this hurt before. I've never seen this look of pure defeat except for in my own eyes.

"Stop..." It's barely a whisper and, of course, no one hears me.

The leader walks over with his own sword until he's standing directly over her head. He raises his sword and she looks up at it, realizing one moment after myself what was going to happen next.

"Stop!" This time they hear me. This time I yelled.

At first, everyone stops moving, hesitating. No one moves or speaks for a good few seconds. Then the leader takes a small half step towards me, the light catching on the black glasses he wears on his face. "Why?"

And I don't know how to respond. Shouldn't I want the woman who has been torturing me for most of my life dead? Should I be happy? I'm not though. I don't want her to die because then there will be truly no one left I know.

I look right into his glasses, right where his eyes should be. "Because she doesn't deserve to die."

One of the boys next to the lead lets out a small gasp. I can understand his confusion though. I don't even know myself why I would ever care about this woman.

That's when I notice, out of the corner of my eye, in the time it has taken for all of this to go down the queen has moved toward my cage. She reaches out at first, I think, to try and grab my leg through the bars. But no, her arm is angled to the side too much. She's reaching for the wall. For a button I didn't notice until now. The lead boy notices too, but by the time he starts to say something to the rest of the group, she's already pressed it.

The boy that had gasped earlier is the first to react, everything that happens after he moves seems to happen in slow motion.

I hear the sounds of pistons and redstone reacting to the pushed button as the boy draws his sword, plunging it deep into the queen's stomach. At about the same time, the top of my cage opens and a mechanism begins launching bottles with a putrid, green

liquid inside of them into my cage. They hit the bottom, the bars, everything. Coating it all in a thin layer of the stuff. Then, while I'm watching the boy in the glasses tackle the one with the sword, one of the bottles hits my back.

The pain is instantaneous. Everywhere the liquid touches, it burns my skin. My head starts to ache, and I get nauseous almost immediately. I'm dimly aware of the boys trying to disable the machine and the queen laying motionless beside the cage, almost peaceful had it not been for the blood flowing out of her torso. I hear a voice. A girl voice. Screaming in terror in pain. I wish I could help her, I want too. But now I'm losing consciousness as the boys finally turn off the circuit and break open my cage, dragging me out. The last thing I see, before darkness consumes my vision entirely, is the boy with the glasses hovering over my face. His lips forming two words: _Hold on._


End file.
